The City of New York is suing an Internet Service Provider on behalf of RIOT Games and Netflix.
Next time you complain about your ping in League of Legends, spare a thought for customers of Time Warner Cable. New York’s attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman claims that the company defrauded customers by neglecting to upgrade its services when negotiating contracts with RIOT Games as well as with Netflix. Schneiderman’s report also claims that TWC worked secretly to confuse the Federal Communications Commission and that they are still involved in “fraudulent and deceptive practices.”
Schneiderman seeks damages for customers who have experienced trouble with their connections, but particularly when it comes to League of Legends and Netflix. However, things are complicated by the company’s merger Charter Communications, which created Charter Spectrum - currently the second biggest ISP in America.
In a press release, Schneiderman claims that the law suit “seeks to compensate Spectrum-Time Warner Cable subscribers for five years of broken promises and damages.” The claims go all the way back to 2012 and come off the back of a 16-month long investigation by the Attorney General. The investigation found that “Spectrum-Time Warner subscribers were getting dramatically short-changed on both speed and reliability.” Specifically “some subscribers [were] getting speeds that were more than 80 percent slower than what they had paid for.”
The findings also state that Spectrum-Time Warner took advantage of the fact that it controls port capacity. This allowed them to charge excessive fees to large content providers such as RIOT and Netflix. Only after these companies agreed to increased fees did the ISP actually upgrade its services, leaving customers suffering in the mean time. Scheiderman’s press release claims that the company “leased deficient cable modems to over 900,000 subscribers in New York that could not deliver the advertised speeds.” Furthermore, they “promised subscribers a home WiFi experience that was beyond the technical limits of its equipment “
Schneiderman now seeks penalties of between $2,000 and $5,000 per violation and wants Spectrum to “disgorge all monies resulting from the fraudulent and illegal practices alleged.”
Interviewed in New York Magazine, a spokesperson for Charter said “we are disappointed that the New York Attorney General chose to file this lawsuit regarding Time Warner Cable’s broadband speed advertisements that occurred prior to Charter’s merger. He went on to add that “Charter made significant commitments to New York State as part of our merger with Time Warner Cable in areas of network investment, broadband deployment and offerings, customer service, and jobs.”
